[Python-Dev] Python Consortium Meeting News

[Tim Peters]

[Neil Hodgson]
>     I don't like this new license as it is much more complex than
> the old license.

Then I'd say you're normal!  The principals on "our side" of the negotiation
view this license as something of a triumph, simply because it's so much
less obnoxious than the proposals that preceded it.  Not speaking for my
employer, I think we lost.  OTOH, python.org will no longer be held hostage.

> Its about 4 times longer and appears to me to attempt to claim a
> licensing relationship with third parties who use software written in
> Python.
>
> Is Python going to use this license forever, or is it just for 1.6?

Who knows?  It's all hifalutin legalese.  Note that the text Guido sent out
is not the same as the text it references at
http://hdl.handle.net/1895.22/1011 either.  I believe it's the latter that's
out of date, and the text Guido sent is friendlier to users.  Still, one way
to read the Guido version is that 2.0 and everything after is a "derivative
work", so must (paragraph 2) include the 1.6 CNRI license, and (paragraph 3)
"indicate in any such work the nature of the modifications made to CNRI’s
Software".  OTOH, I can see at least two other ways to read it!  Perhaps a
consortium member who already paid a lawyer would care to  pass on their
confusion <wink>.

looks-infectious-to-me-ly y'rs  - tim